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Blinded Iraq war vet raids with a little helpWhy there won't be a flood of death knights
by David Bowers 
Jan 12th 2008 at 11:01AM
Many people are predicting that "everyone" will make a new death knight character when the new expansion is going to come out -- so many that the world will seem full of them. While it is true that everyone may very well try out the first couple levels of the new death knight hero class, it's not true that every server will be overrun with them. Here's why:The addition of death knights to the game is in many ways like the addition of blood elves and draenei in The Burning Crusade. Many people made new characters just to see the new zones, but many others wanted to level their mains through Outland first. Many of those players who tried out the new races only played up to a certain point and then stopped to go back to their main characters. We never saw a flood of draenei and blood elves outnumbering all other races of Azeroth, and for the same reason we will not see a flood of new death knights. There are different things to do in the expansion, and different people make different choices about which to do first. There may be a contstant stream of new death knights, maybe even a river sometimes, but death knights will just feel like the newest kid in the WoW class, not a plague of locusts infesting the entire town.
There's also a huge difference between trying out a death knight, and choosing one as your new main character. Wherever death knights start out in the world may be a crowded area for a while, but most players won't ever level them out of that starting zone. Unlike the Jedi in Star Wars, death knights are only one of many types of characters in Warcraft. Besides, the death knight play style and thematic mood simply isn't going to appeal to everyone, in the same way that most WoW players today do not play warlocks, notwithstanding the fact that warlocks are undoubtedly a powerful class. Most players prefer to do healing, shapeshifting, stealthing, ranged shots, totems, or any number of other abilities that death knights will never have, and they will stay with their favorite classes and play styles. Some players, like myself, probably just won't like their armor decorated with skulls all the time.
Filed under: Expansions, Classes, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
battlecry Feb 4th 2008 9:31AM
You cannot compare blood elf popularity to a DK. firstly one is a race and one is a class, people may choose blood elves as they are cool, or for their own special abilities, they can have a troll mage but reroll blood elf mage for the arcane torrent?, who knows. Rerolling a class does not change your skill level, whereas the deathknight requires you to master it and learn how to use it properly which will most certainly take a while, hence you cannot compare these two.
Mugi Jan 12th 2008 11:16AM
Well my server on hord 40% is Blood Elf so not realy sure what this is trying to say.
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=739&factionid=2&minlevel=10&maxlevel=70&servertypeid=2
Bitterhope Jan 22nd 2008 7:12PM
I have to note that my server is 40% blood elf as well, with about 40% of level 70s in the group. Overrun, too bad Scryer rep doesn't buy you immunity.
Thab Jan 12th 2008 11:33AM
Uh, BE are the vast majority horde race on my server.
Vort Jan 12th 2008 11:37AM
There are always some outliers in every population.
Shrike Jan 12th 2008 3:22PM
14% of all characters in WoW are blood elves. The only races more numerous are humans and night elves.
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=-1&factionid=-1&minlevel=1&maxlevel=70&servertypeid=-1
If it's limited to Horde, blood elves make up 33% of the US server population.
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=-2&factionid=2&minlevel=1&maxlevel=70&servertypeid=-1
I'd call that a flood of blood elves outnumbering other races.
Gendou Jan 12th 2008 3:45PM
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Try looking at things at L70:
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=-2&factionid=2&minlevel=70&maxlevel=70&servertypeid=-1
Looks a little different now, doesn't it?
Just because a bunch of people rolled Blood Elves to see the new starter content doesn't mean they stuck with them to 70, which is what matters.
Hollywood Ron Jan 12th 2008 11:38AM
If DKs start at level 55, I'll roll one.
Verses Jan 12th 2008 11:49AM
Don't forget that you'll probly have to do an epic chain of quests so that they can grant you the "priviledge" of making yourself a deathknight, maybe finishing with some crazy ass quests where you have to get this sword, wander 2 years in total madness, and if you're still paying for WoW until then, well gratz, U Gat Ur DeadNight :D !!11!1!
Lios Jan 12th 2008 2:02PM
Blizzard is now more leaning to the idea of letting everyone above a certain level create a DK and you will never 'make yourself' a DK, you create a whole new character.
I think everyone and his momma will have a DK, but few will be level to 80 and played as main.
toots Jan 12th 2008 11:52AM
my realmpool has majority Bloodelfs horde side. draenai are thirs biggest race after humans and nelfs
Ravenswing Jan 12th 2008 11:52AM
I think the article is a little over-optimistic. If there is no flood of Death Knights, it will be because they don't work very well. Yes, there are other classes to play in WoW, but no other 'epic' classes.
Justin Jan 12th 2008 11:58AM
Well, there is a huge difference between getting a new "class", so to speak, in the Death Knights, and getting two new races. The new races were more just a fresh take on the same old stuff. However, people are tired of playing the same nine classes since release, and there will be a blitz of level 70 DKs. Once people realize they are yet another underitemized jack-of-all-trades class, they will join non-healing shaman, druids, and paladins in the dustbin. Sad.
Carigon Jan 14th 2008 12:46AM
Since when are nonhealing pallies and druids relegated to the dust bin? Most large guild i know of have a prot spec pally or a dps or tanking druid within their ranks.... prominently. Maybe before some of the more recent patches, in the dusty remains of previous patches, this was the case, but Blizzard has taken huge steps to make all specs viable.
Angus Jan 14th 2008 11:09AM
Smart guilds have enhance shaman in their ranks.
Increasing the DPS of the rogues and melee warriors 10-15% or more while contributing almost as much DPS means they are definitely a good contribution.
Getting them well enough geared is like with feral or tankadins, a pain in the butt. Once they are there, they are golden.
Mats Jan 12th 2008 12:07PM
Despite some realms being overflowing with belfs, and some not, if we total out EVERY server, on both EU and US, Blood elves are the biggest race out there, with 29% (undead coming in second with 27%)
And among ALL the bloodelves out there, 33% are paladins.
So, all in all, we are overflowing with paladins, the only thing preventing us from seeing it, is the fact that we had such a huge base of non-paladins, that it evened out.
Gendou Jan 12th 2008 12:51PM
Yes, but what percentage of the population are Blood Elves at level 70? (here's a hint - it's less than the number of Tauren at 70, and much less than the number of Undead at 70)
I have four Blood Elf alts myself, but only one of them made it past 20.
I think you'll find that a lot of people, both Horde and Alliance, rolled Blood Elves to see the new starting zones and didn't take them much further than that. Much like the OP stated, in fact.
Dave Jan 12th 2008 12:40PM
I tried to make this point a few months ago, but i think you're wholeheartedly wrong.
I think everyone is probably going to HAVE a death knight at some point. If things are the same as BC, it's gonna run a month or so to hit 80 with most people. The achievers are going to do nothing but level to 80, but there will be plenty of guys who will be helping their guild out by leveling a DK for a spare tank. (how many guilds need tanks?) If they're starting at 55, they're going to take a lot less time to get up to speed than starting a totally new alt so that's nice.
The real test of things, is how many people will have Death Knights a year after the expansion hits.
There are TONS of people with Blood Elves and Draeni. I've got 4 of them myself, I filled the rest of my character slots with BE whatevers. But, now how many people stuck with their BE, leveled it to 70 and still use it as their main character these days? I'd suspect less than half the people who made even a single BE/DR even got it to 70. So will Death Knights change this sort of trend? I'd suspect that plenty of people will unlock their DK, but since tanking isn't necessarily the most fun... and they SHOULD fall somewhere around 4th or 5th on the DPS charts so it's not going to be a huge improvement for anyone but a DPS warrior really because of the self-healing abilities. They're basically going to be a crossed druid tank (2h, no shield) with a paladin (necromantic self-heal) so I really see a few scenarios:
Warrior rolls a DK for tanking, since they seem like they're gonna be a pretty good alternative to the Prot Warrior as a DK should be able to tank and DPS in the same vein as a Feral Druid. No more paying for respec
Druid Tank rolls a DK so he can turn his Feral Druid into a Resto Druid and have a Tank/DPS character on the side without endless amounts of respecs.
Same situation with the Paladin Tank, so he can have respectable DPS on the side without the endless problems of a Ret spec.
those are the only areas of major impact I can see. I don't see any of the pure DPS classes permanently switching, but I totally see a lot of the classes that have to respec a lot to have any fun sticking with a DK since it (so far) seems they'll be able to do the tanking and DPS'ing without having to respec... but we'll see.
jacksonw Jan 12th 2008 2:02PM
But people DID level Blood Elfs and Draenei to 70. It's the same ratio of people who roll human, night elf, troll, whatever else. It's always about 2/3 or 3/4 of people who pick any race and never level that character to 70, so you're guessing right, but it's also true even if you're not tunnel-visioned on a specific thing.
I'm a late commer to WoW, and I ended up making a Blood Elf as soon as my main hit 55-ish when I bought TBC. Now that Blood Elf IS my main and doing heroics. My first? Taking baby steps into Outlands.
Now, with DK though, I'm assuming EVERYONE will HAVE one, not as their main, maybe not to 80, but you will see an explosion of Death Knights. At the point people will (enivitably) rush to get this quest done, you will see more than a 1:1 ratio of people at 80 "just dabbling in" Death Knights.
If there are 2,000,000 level 70s, and I'm to assume the average amount of 70s people have is somewhere around two, that's about 1,000,000 Death Knights just from the current hardcore; that's not a terrible estimate considering that's just about how many hunters people have made.
But that is a flood. Not a flood of level 80 Death Knights geared to the teeth in epics, but I really do assume that every level 80 will have a Death Knight stashed away somewhere, whether they need it or not.
Combatc87 Jan 12th 2008 12:43PM
@ #8 I play both a Protection Paladin and Feral Druid, so I'm used to the poor itemization making a Death Knight a perfect fit for me.
I'm looking forward to the DK's. I'm not crazy about the fact that I will be competing with 50% of the server for existence, but I've been through it already. I rolled a paladin because I wanted a paladin. I rolled my pally as a BELF because I wanted the support from my Horde side main.
All I saw while leveling were BELF pallies running around, so I'm used to seeing overpopulation. I see less pallies in endgame, however, than I did while leveling, and I think Death Knights will be the same. Everyone will try it out, no question about that. It will be that class that most people play after a night of raiding just to wind down with something different, and the class that a few people will really take to and play as their primary character, much like Shaman.